SOME WAYS AND MEANS 171 



a rockwork, but should be large, massive, and 

 sparsely set, cropping up from the ground hap- 

 hazard and as if their greater bulk were beneath 

 the soil. Grass should be encouraged to grow 

 about them, even upon them in places ; and Poa 

 alpina^ forma vivipara is a suitable, as well as 

 a most interesting, grass for this purpose. The 

 Alpine Clover, too {Trefolium alpinwn), may 

 well be encouraged to spread around the base of 

 these rocks and over the ground that slopes up 

 to them. With its large, loose, rosy flower- 

 heads, sometimes white or lilac, it is an ever- 

 welcome June visitor, especially where it luxuriates ; 

 as, for instance, at Le Planet, below the French 

 side of the Col de Balme. 



I have said that the rocks ought, in greater 

 part, to be of a " generous " nature ; and I have 

 said this because a hard and unresponsive rock 

 here and there would not be out of place. 

 Although quantity equally with quality is the 

 predominant note in Alpine floral circumstance, 

 it is not an invariable rule, and something of 

 barrenness only adds to the scene of plenty. 

 Moreover, a cold, bare rock with just one cleft 

 in it where some single tuft of Dianthus, or of 

 Veronica saxatilis, for instance, can cling is often 



